presents

WATERCOLOR
LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND
LUMINOSITY
10 Watercolor Painting
Techniques from
Artist Daily
WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY

Skin–tones
& Colors
that Shine
ALI CAVANAUGH DISCOVERED
WAYS & MEANS TO CREATE
RICHLY NUANCED FIGURE
PAINTINGS IN WATERCOLOR.
by Lynne Mos s P e r r i c e lli

A
li Cavanaugh prefers
watercolor as a medium,
but her approach is more
like that of an oil painter.
Building up multiple layers,
slowly blending the paints
to the desired color and value, she achieves
a remarkable depth and luminosity, especially
in the skin tones. Such a labor-intensive
approach and an unconventional application
of watermedia requires a special surface,
which Cavanaugh discovered in Ampersand’s
Aquabord, a plaster panel cradled in birch
plywood and covered with kaolin clay. The ABOVE
artist describes the surface as “pebbly,” con- Falling Through
veying a rich texture that holds the paint well. Your Redolence
2008, watercolor, 30 x 22.
Best of all, the wet surface allows the paint to Courtesy Bering & James
remain workable over a long period of time. Gallery, Houston, Texas.

This content has been abridged from an original article written by Lynne Moss Perricelli. This premium has been published by Interweave Press,
201 E. Fourth St., Loveland, CO 80537-5655; (970) 669-7672. Copyright © 2008 by Interweave Press, a division of Aspire Media, all rights
reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner.

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WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY

Perfected Through a Fall

2008, watercolor, 50 x 40.
Collection the artist.

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WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY
Cavanaugh begins any new work by
first arranging a photo shoot. Her mod-
els are typically her daughter and niec-
es, and she dresses them in clothes
from her own collection of vintage fab-
rics. “The magic for me is in dressing
the figure and doing the photo shoot,”
Cavanaugh says. “The creative part of
my process is mostly in capturing the
figure in a pose that is emotional.” She
spends a great deal of time deciding
I Remember How
It Used To Be
2007, watercolor,
20 x 16. Private collection.
4 www.artistdaily.com
what the figure will wear. “The clothing
sets the tone, but more important it
allows me to bring together the two
things I love the most: fabric and the
figure. Painting the fabric and the pat-
terns motivates me.”
Setting up her digital camera on
a tripod, she takes some 200 to 300
photos. She engages the model in
conversation to find a natural, com-
pelling pose. She then uploads the
photos to her computer, where she
can view and manipulate them with
Photoshop software. “I choose one
photo or a couple of photos and piece
them together,” the artist describes.
“I eliminate some elements, change
everything to black and white. I cut
and paste from other photos, keep-
ing everything on the screen.”
Once she has determined the
composition, she selects a panel and
WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY

RIGHT

Why Not
2008, watercolor, 14 x 18.
Collection the artist.

BELOW

Twice
2007, watercolor, 12 x 12.
Private collection.

makes a light graphite drawing. She

then wets the surface and begins
painting. The graphite dissolves when
the water and pigment contact the
surface. “I have no set formula,” she
explains. “Every painting starts out in
its own way. Sometimes I work from
light to dark, sometimes I don’t.”
Cavanaugh likens her process to egg
tempera in that she uses multiple
tiny strokes to build up the color in
layers, and although she is respond-
ing to the work as it progresses, the
process is slow and meticulous. She
typically begins with a 1” sable flat
to lay in the background areas, then
uses smaller brushes, down to a .2.
“I go through about four brushes
per painting,” she notes. “The sand-
paperlike texture of the surface
wears out the brushes quickly.”
She arranges her paints—by Daniel
Smith, for the most part—on ceramic
tiles in clusters of colors: one for skin,
one for hair, and one for fabric. After
spraying the paints to keep them wet,
she adds a lot of water to the pigment
and mixes some color on the palette.

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WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY
She allows each layer of paint to dry
before she applies the next, which
prevents the previous layers from lift-
ing. Her skin tones typically consist
of varying degrees of the following
paints: yellow ochre, cadmium red
light, cadmium red medium, a variety
of purples, sap green, burnt umber,
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burnt sienna, and Van Dyck brown.
In painting the fabrics, she layers
complementary colors to build depth.
For gray fabrics, she combines lamp
black, Payne’s gray, indigo, and ceru-
lean blue.
As Cavanaugh layers the paint, she
reworks certain areas as necessary by
Putting on
Perfection
2008, watercolor, 30 x 22.
Collection the artist.
lifting out the paint with clean brushes
and paper towels. She also pulls out
highlights and makes other adjust-
ments. “I don’t know how to explain
it other than to say I just go into it
and layer the paint. I just keep work-
ing until it looks good,” she says. A
painting generally consists of up to
WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY

RIGHT

A Boat for You Within My Arms

2008, watercolor, 30 x 30. Courtesy Wally
Workman Gallery, Austin, Texas.

BELOW

6, 7, 8, 9, 10
2008, watercolor, 16 x 20. Collection the artist.

50 layers. When a piece is complete,

Cavanaugh applies three to four coats
of acrylic matte spray to seal and
protect the surface, using three coats
of Minwax Polycrylic on the plywood
sides. She hangs the small pieces
with a sawtooth hanger on the back
of the cradle and rubber bumpers at
the bottom so that the piece hangs
perfectly against the wall. Larger
pieces require D rings to the back of
the cradle and a wire for hanging.
Cavanaugh believes her interest in
the figure has its origin in her hear-
ing loss, which resulted from spinal
meningitis when she was 15 months
old. “I have a small amount of hear-
ing in one ear,” she says, “but out in
the world I have to depend on read-
ing lips and body language. This has
made me very attuned to others, to
the unspoken language of the figure.
I love the structure of the figure, but
the unseen dimension of the figure is
what strikes me so deeply.” She began
painting commissioned portraits in
high school, and even in college, she
always returned to the figure. In 2004,
after the birth of her daughter, the
figure took on even greater meaning
as she observed her daughter’s growth
and how it made her think of her own
childhood. Creating images of girls
has presented “an entry point into
my own past experiences,” she says.
The artist, even since art school, has
been known for her use of negative
space. “I overstate the negative space,”
she says, “and I suppose it’s because
it quiets the composition. It creates a
silence. Maybe it’s because of my hear-
ing loss. Maybe it’s just to isolate the

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WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY

ABOVE LEFT

Separate My Thought Within a Graceful

From Yours Melody
2008, watercolor,18 x 28. 2007, watercolor, 30 x 30.
Collection the artist. Private collection.

figure, just like when someone is speaking to

me I have to focus completely on that person.”
Recently Cavanaugh has embarked on
a new series of time-lapse images. So far
she has four sets, still in the early stages, in
which she shows the same figure at differ-
ent points in time. She would also like to
sew her own clothes for the photo shoots.
“I’m limited right now to the clothes in the
stores,” she explains, “but I would like to get
into cutting up clothes and resewing them.
I love inside-out clothes—the seams, the
threads. I want to play around with them
and be more creative with the fabric.”
There’s no doubt this artist will find
a way to make both the process and the
paintings uniquely her own. That’s what
she’s always done.  n

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WATERCOLOR LESSONS ON
DEPTH AND LUMINOSITY
DEMONSTRATION: DOUBTFUL
1 Step 5
Step 1
The artist first made a light graphite
sketch to establish the composition.
2
Step 2
Beginning with the bandana, the artist
began laying small strokes of color, using
a combination of lamp black, Prussian
blue, cerulean blue, burnt umber, and
sepia. To convey a sense of depth, she
worked from light to dark.
3
Step 3
The artist gradually built up the layers
of paint in small strokes.
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Step 4
Cavanaugh next developed
the figure’s dress, using
a combination of French
ultramarine, indigo, and
burnt umber. Again she
worked from light to dark.
4
To create depth in the
skin tones, the artist first
laid in the darkest darks,
using raw sienna and burnt
umber. She then used
many reds, oranges, and
yellows in thin, watery lay-
ers. She worked slowly to
build the layers evenly and
achieve a luminous effect.
THE COMPLETED PAINTING:
Doubtful
2007, watercolor, 20 x 16.
Collection the artist.
 Create a Tre asu re
to Last Fo re ver
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